Engaging Parents as Partners to Support Early Child Health and Development

Why do parents and providers of primary care and other child and family services need to partner to improve care coordination services for young children? Ensuring and coordinating services that support young children’s healthy development requires strong and effective partnerships between families and health care providers. The effectiveness of each provider recommendation and/ or referral depends on effective communication with parents, and parents accepting and implementing the advice. Children’s health and well-being depends on the day-to-day choices families make. Because a child’s health and development is deeply rooted in the environment that the parent creates—the prenatal care they seek, the food they bring into the house, the guidance they provide for children—engaging parents as active partners with providers is essential. Consequently, providing patient and family education to build care-management skills is a critical characteristic of high performance pediatric care coordination.